alternative energy

Founders of the Arava Power Company in Israel have started a new firm that will focus on bringing renewable energy to countries in the developing world. Whilst Arava has made concrete inroads in their home country, with a 40MW photovoltaic solar farm on Kibbutz Ketura just north of Eilat among their most recent projects, Energiya […]

Hurricane Sandy bulldozed my home coastline with a ferocity rarely seen outside the big screen. It ploughed through lives of friends and family, shredding homes, floating cars, and drowning pets. We can debate the causes of climate change, but the increasingly damaging effect of extreme weather upon basic civil services is indisputable. In a crisis, […]

MENA Geothermal has completed the largest geothermal heating and cooling system in the Middle East and North Africa. Completed in August, 2012, the new and deeply clean energy system at the American University of Madaba (AUM) in Jordan has a total cooling load of 1680 kW and a heating load of 1350 kW, which is enough […]

Three years of sustainable lighting for fifteen bucks? United Nations Relief Agency, you hearing this? The LuminAID inflatable solar light was created by a pair of architecture students focused on disaster-relief solutions to the 2010 Haitian earthquake. Their light offers a safe, inexpensive and sustainable alternative to kerosene and oil lamps that’s ideally suited to […]

The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights have condemned fracking by Shell, Apache and Dana Petroleum in Egypt as dangerous and called for an immediate end to the practice Fracking has faced criticism worldwide due to concerns that it contaminates drinking water and triggers earthquakes. Now, Egyptians have launched a campaign against Shell’s hydraulic fracturing operations […]

Determined to stay its unpopular nuclear course, Iran is now turning to wind power and other renewable energy sources to blow past sanctions. Last year Karin reported that the current regime plans to produce 5,000 MW of solar energy by 2015, and in May this year, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad put aside an additional $620 million […]

In advance of the annual EU-Israel Association Council meeting on Tuesday, the European Union stated it will offer Israel upgraded trade and diplomatic relations in over 60 areas, including energy and agriculture. This offer will also grant Israel access to European government-controlled markets and enhance Israel’s co-operation with nine EU agencies. This announcement came almost […]

Paint researchers at University of Notre Dame go green, and not just ‘cause they’re the “Fighting Irish” A team of scientists and engineers led by Professor Prashant Kamat is generating energy from solar paint. Building on recent advances in semiconductor nanocrystal research, they’ve developed a one-coat solar paint for designing quantum dot solar cells. Energy […]

Israeli diplomats and ministers have taken a quasi-Messianic tone as the Rio+20 United Nations conference approaches.”Our main message is that the world has the problems and challenges and Israel has the solutions,” said Galit Cohen, senior deputy director-general of Israel’s Environment Ministry. “Israeli innovation for the world.” Israel has a reputation as an international hub of green technology. […]

The world watched with bated breath as André Borschberg and Bertrand Piccard respectively made their way from Switzerland to Spain and finally to Morocco in the sun-powered Solar Impulse. The first solar-powered transcontinental flight has come to a close but the journey towards a more sustainable method of global travel is only just beginning. As Piccard, who […]

Jordan’s nuclear industry is wildly volatile, especially when you consider it doesn’t actually exist. Arwa reported on last week’s parliamentary vote to shelve Jordan’s first nuclear reactor. Exploratory mining for uranium was also stopped. The program will surely resurrect once new feasibility analyses are complete, but against a backdrop of a pressurized economy, scarce water […]

Residents of the artificial Jumeirah Island villas in Dubai face cooling bills of up to $1,600 a month – almost double last year’s price, according to The National. So British national and long-time Dubai resident Tony Caden decided to install an array of 38 solar panels and a giant 20 tonne chiller. Now completely independent […]

Can the Energy Tower slated for US Mexico border create clean power and mitigate climate change? If Americans put Man on the moon, why not, argues Brian. Professor Dan Zaslavsky and Dr. Rami Guetta from Technion-Israel Institute of Technology are trying to develop an idea first patented by Phillip R. Carlson in 1975. In what […]

Like Egypt, Israel, and Jordan, Lebanon has been beset with energy shortages recently – a crisis that will escalate as demand grows alongside an ever-expanding population. Sidestepping these constraints and taking advantage of almost year-round sunshine, the Transportation Ministry has installed 766 solar-powered street lights on a 10km stretch of relatively unpolluted highway in Hermel. […]

In just six hours, the deserts receive more energy from the sun than humankind produces in a year, and Desertec is harnessing it. Right now hundreds of people are gathered at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland making the same kind of noises about the security of our future as the suits at COP […]

Abu Dhabi’s 75% government-owned National Energy Company TAQA has just created its first-ever division to specialize in investing in renewable energy. The new unit, Energy Solutions, will invest in wind, solar, thermal and hydro power, according to a report at The National. TAQA first evidenced an interest in clean energy in 2008, and it has committed to a $1.1 billion […]

The Green Palestine Investment Company aims to remove barriers to greening the local economy and society The Green Palestine Investment Company is making Palestine greener one solid waste, waste water, and renewable energy project at a time. Established in 2009, the firm aims to be the first company in Palestine to implement environmental activities that […]

California-based startup company Blueseed has plans to either build or retrofit a ship that will provide accommodation and office space for talented foreign innovators who don’t meet America’s stringent working visa regulations. Since the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, even the brightest would-be entrepreneurs have met serious legislative […]

Even as the country tries to sort out its new political identity following the first democratic elections in decades, Egypt is forging ahead with its wind power plans. Big time. As part of its target of going from its current 550MW of wind to a staggering 2,690MW by 2016 to reach 7,200MW by 2020, Egypt is putting […]

Radionika Arhitekture from Croatia won an international design competition to design Instanbul’s Disaster Prevention and Education Center, which is hoped to create more public awareness about earthquakes in particular. In the last two months, two large earthquakes in Turkey claimed a total of 670 lives – deaths that might have been prevented with better disaster […]

The Festival of Lights gives spiritual and historical messages. This year, add a green message to the lights. Hannukah falls on December 20th this year. Among the laws of lighting the menorah – one of the Hannukah traditions that Jews follow for eight days – is one that requires placing it where the lights can […]

Despite the mainstream news depicting nothing but political drama and violence, there are all kinds of great green projects ongoing in the Middle East. Take a look at 7 that might surprise you. Most people who think about clean tech developments in the Arab World immediately think of Masdar City, since it is probably one […]

Before now, the environment has been glaringly absent from Egypt’s political agenda, but our friends over at Almasry Alyoum have compiled a fantastic list of would-be parliamentarians who seek to change that. Until now, the environment has never been on Egypt’s political agenda, but today’s parliamentary elections – albeit fraught with undue complexity and fears […]

High birth rates coupled with domestic subsidies have resulted in soaring energy demand. Now Saudi Arabia has turned to nukes to keep it all going. Bucking a trend globally of abandoning or reversing plans for more nuclear power in reaction to the Fukushima disaster, Saudi Arabia is now hunting for a site to build its […]

Desalination’s negative environmental risks can outweigh the benefits, argues our environmental lawyer blogger Josh. Israel will quadruple its output of desalinated water by 2050, according to a report released by the country’s Water Authority Council. The government will also encourage construction of new desalination facilities on manmade islands. These measures will ensure a continuous stream […]